On His Beatitude Onuphry

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOJ

Today we celebrate the name day of Metropolitan Onuphry.

We have been doing this every year for 12 years now, and each time we thank God with all our hearts for such a Primate. Why? After all, his ill-wishers constantly criticize him, saying that His Beatitude does not react at all to this or that event, does not make important statements, does not condemn, does not call for action, and so on. With irony, they say that His Beatitude “only prays.”

Unfortunately, today there are many hierarchs, even patriarchs, who “do not keep silent” and regularly issue “important statements” on all manner of questions. Yet we can see that this leads to nothing good.

A clergyman must lead a person to God. Not by winding detours through service to the state, the nation, or ecology, but by the shortest and most direct road – the road of the Gospel. This would seem to be such a simple and obvious truth, yet for some reason far from everyone is guided by it.

His Beatitude Onuphry teaches us precisely this – quiet, yet unwavering, following after God. He teaches us that the word of Christ, not the word of politicians, must always come first – and he teaches what is so easy to speak of and so hard to embody in life: love even for enemies, rejection of war and malice, mercy and forgiveness. He teaches humility as true spiritual strength.

And when he is reproached for “only praying,” these words in fact contain the highest praise that can be offered to an archpastor. For prayer is not “only.” Prayer is the very heart of everything.

Many and blessed years to you, Your Beatitude!

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